interface-design-taste
Interface design taste
Fit the product, the task and the requested character before any trend. Preserve the user's intent instead of substituting a house style; mixed styles, bold palettes, dark canvases and expressive motion are all fine when hierarchy, contrast and usability survive. preventing-ui-slop blocks the generic AI defaults; this skill chooses the direction.
Direction
Resolve the artifact (marketing page, content page, product surface, dashboard, desktop tool), the user's goal on the screen, how often they see it, and whether they are browsing, deciding, operating or monitoring. Skip any worksheet when the brief already gives direction. For vague "make it nicer" requests, these axes make a direction concrete: composure (restrained to theatrical), density (spacious to operational), contrast (soft to sharp), materiality (flat to layered), motion (still to expressive). They are discussion aids, not scores. A dense desktop tool can be calm; a marketing page can be restrained.
Starting points to adapt, not a menu:
- Editorial Calm: reading-heavy products. Refined sans with restrained serif accents, quiet borders, one muted accent, slow subtle motion.
- Product Precision: B2B, fintech, dashboards. Sharp sans with mono for numbers, crisp dividers, disciplined cards, short state-led motion.
- Warm Material: consumer, wellness, creative tools. Humanist type, soft layered surfaces, fluid motion; watch for shadows that blur object boundaries.
- Operational Density: admin panels, ops consoles, desktop tools. Compact sans plus mono, dividers over cards, minimal ornament, fast motion.
- Expressive Showcase: launches, portfolios, campaigns. Bold display type, one dominant visual idea per section, high-energy motion; keep text readable, no unsafe flashing, reduced-motion alternative.